Signs of the Times

I saw this advertisement posted to a telephone pole the other day:

FREE LIMOUSINE FORECLOSURE TOURS

Tour economically-ravaged neighborhoods in style! You can point and scoff at all the derelicts who couldn't pay their mortgages - maybe even snatch a house for dirt cheap! Turns out these tours are big in these parts. After all, Orange County is ground zero for the mortgage meltdown.

At a school meeting this week, my wife mentioned that the meeting organizer opened their session with a few excerpts from a book called "Quotes from Great Leaders". The quote for the day came from St. Ronnie:

Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.

Thankfully, it's a recession for me.

Can't say the same about my neighbor next door. 

Comments

[Randal Graves]

I see that the welfare queens have upgraded from standard Caddies to limos. Reagan would be rolling over in his grave if he wasn't being dug up at every opportunity by DC.

[LewScannon]

If people didn't enjoy wallowing in other's misery we would never have reality television.

[Adam]

This reminds me of a sign I saw while driving through New Orleans' lower ninth ward a couple years ago, pictured here.

I was by myself, stopped and gave them a what I could. But until I went there myself, I didn't know there were bus tours going though the lower ninth. And when I heard of them, I thought to myself "Are you fucking kidding me?" I mean, it's an American tragedy that, personally, I think everybody should see if they can. To learn what happens when the government fails you. But to have bus tours of the lower ninth which contributed nothing to the resident's there was astonishingly rude.

[Agi]

In Rio De Janeiro there are several companies that offer tours of the favelas - the large urban slums built into the hills. Drivers load tourists into Humvees and roam through the neighborhoods of the urban poor snapping photos to see how the other half lives. I couldn't do it when I was there - it just seemed wrong.

[I Love Orange County Limousines]

Granted, the above "sign of the times" is , well, tasteless. However, when used for better purpose, the limousine industry is respectable and can fulfill transportation needs in grace and class.